Last week, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and five Dallas police officers were among the hundreds of people who lost their lives to gun violence. Last month, 49 people were killed in the deadly massacre targeting LGBT people in Orlando. Their deaths shine a harsh light not only on the devastating impact of systemic racism and anti-LGBT discrimination on our society, but on the ways that our culture of fear and hate-driven gun ownership puts the lives of far too many Americans at risk.

After Orlando, Democrats in Congress took steps to try to pressure Republicans to break their allegiance with the National Rifle Association and take action on gun control. And as was to be expected, Republicans failed to step up to the challenge.

The last fews weeks have proven that breaking the NRA’s chokehold on Congress will require massive grassroots pressure on our elected officials, demanding they take bold action for comprehensive gun control and offer more than their thoughts and prayers in the face of our epidemic of gun violence.

Tell Republicans in Congress: We need real gun control now.

On Friday, President Obama condemned Congress’s inability to take proactive action to combat gun violence. He said, “I think I speak for every single American when I say that we are horrified...When people are armed with powerful weapons, unfortunately, it makes attacks like these more deadly and more tragic.” Today we’re standing with the president. Can you add your voice today to tell Republican leaders to vote on a meaningful package of gun control reforms, including an assault weapons ban?

Republican members of Congress respond to gun tragedies while they’re in the news. But, they don’t take responsibility for how their actions, and inaction, lay the groundwork for hate crimes and gun violence, nor do they take action to prevent these tragedies from happening again. Instead, they offer up either fleeting sentiments or xenophobic and racist policies.
They need to pass real gun control now, including:

Prohibiting the manufacture and sale of assault weapons and "large capacity" magazines for civilian use.

Closing the loophole that allows people to buy guns without undergoing background checks through private sales, at gun shows and online. An estimated 40 percent of all firearms transferred in the U.S. are transferred by unlicensed individuals not required to conduct background checks on buyers.

Banning convicted domestic abusers and stalkers from buying guns. Abused women are five times more likely to be killed by their abuser if that individual has access to a firearm.

Channeling resources into urban gun violence prevention programs

Ending the ban on gun violence research

In 2014 alone, the gun lobby spent over $30 million on political advertising and lobbying to influence legislators in Congress and state capitals across the country.5 If Republicans really want to protect Americans, they need to break their blind allegiance to the NRA and pass gun control legislation. But they’ll never act unless we force them. Can you add your voice today?

Tell Republicans in Congress: It’s time to pass real gun control legislation.

When Republicans disagree with advances in women’s rights, LGBT rights, or civil rights, they don’t just offer their thoughts and prayers, they push legislation. In just the last year, Republicans in Congress and in state legislatures across the country have worked to make abortion impossible to access, to discriminate against LGBT people, and to take away voting rights. At the same time, they have aggressively pushed the NRA’s agenda to weaken gun laws, from campus carry to permitless carry to stand your ground.

It’s clear that current Republican leaders in Congress lack the care, or courage, to act on their own. Now we have to make them.